Controlling transmitter output in a wireless communications network based on regulatory RF exposure limits

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer programs for controlling the output of a transmission point. A method for controlling the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network. The method comprises: determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time; comparing the average output power to an output power reference value; and allocating data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National stage of International Application No. PCT/SE2018/051347, filed Dec. 20, 2018, which claims priority to International Application No. PCT/CN2018/082086, filed Apr. 6, 2018, which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to wireless communication, and particularly relate to methods, apparatus and computer programs for controlling the output of a transmission point.

BACKGROUND

When any radio equipment is to be deployed, regulatory radio frequency (RF) exposure regulations need to be accounted for. These exposure limitations are typically based on the guidelines from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) but may take different forms in different countries and regions. The aim of the RF exposure regulations is to ensure that human exposure to RF energy is kept within safe limits, which have typically been set with wide safety margins.

Transmission points for wireless communication networks are increasingly being equipped with advanced antenna systems (AAS). These antenna systems increase the capacity and/or coverage of existing wireless systems by addition of an antenna array. This enables the simultaneous transmission of parallel data streams between a base station and a user, so called multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) transmission. In some cases, like when millimeter—wave (mmVV) carrier frequencies are used, the main desired effect is rather to enhance coverage by exploiting the high beamforming gain of the new AAS systems.

A consequence of the increasing beamforming gain is that the radiated energy is concentrated in beams, in which the effective radiated power is increased as compared to the situation without AAS systems. The RF exposure limits are typically expressed in terms of power density (W/m²) which in the far field is proportional to the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), i.e. the power radiated from an antenna with unity antenna gain in all directions. Consequently, the EIRP can be used to determine the power density in the far field. This implies that at a given distance from the antenna, and in the far field, the experienced momentary EIRP and power density will be higher in a beam generated by an AAS system with beam forming gain, than without such an AAS system.

The ICNIRP and other RF exposure limitations are usually expressed as an average power density over a specified time interval T. This means that the momentary or instantaneous power can be higher than the specified limit, but the sustained power density must be below the limit. It will further be understood that the power density varies inversely with distance from the transmitter. The distance from the transmitter at which the specified limit is met is referred to as the “compliance distance”. To maintain a certain RF exposure compliance distance, which is shorter than that obtained using the maximum momentary EIRP of the AAS, the time-averaged power needs to be maintained at or below a pre-determined threshold.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides methods, apparatus and computer programs which seek to mitigate these and other problems.

In one aspect, there is provided a method for controlling the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network. The method comprises: determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time; comparing the average output power to an output power reference value; and allocating data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

In a further aspect, the disclosure provides a network node configured to perform the method recited above.

A further aspect provides a computer program for performing the method recited above. A computer program product, comprising the computer program, is also provided.

Another aspect provides a network node for the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network, the network node comprising processing circuitry and a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the network node to: determine an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time; compare the average output power to an output power reference value; and allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

A further aspect provides a network node for the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network. The network node comprises: a determining module configured to determine an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time; a comparing module configured to compare the average output power to an output power reference value; and an allocation module configured to allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of examples of the present disclosure, and to show more clearly how the examples may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example only, to the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication network according to embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a feedback control mechanism according to embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a transmitter arrangement according to embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 5a and 5b show a transmitter arrangement according to further embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a network node according to embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network node according to further embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an automatic control scheme.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a communication network 110 according to embodiments of the disclosure.

The network 110 may at least partly be based on radio access technologies such as e.g. 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS), Global System for Mobile (GSM)/Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), 3GPP2 CDMA technologies e.g. CDMA2000 1×RTT and High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), just to mention some options. The network 110 may be suitable for providing radio communications meeting one or more of the criteria established by the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance for the 5th generation of mobile telecommunications standards. In one embodiment, therefore, the communication network 110 may be a wireless cellular network.

The network 110 comprises one or more radio access nodes 112, 114. In the illustrated embodiment, two radio access nodes 112, 114 are shown, but the skilled person will appreciate that any number of radio access nodes may be provided.

The radio access nodes 112, 114 may be referred to as e.g. base stations, NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNB, or eNodeB), gNodeBs, base transceiver stations, Access Point Base Stations, base station routers, Radio Base Stations (RBSs), macro base stations, micro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations, Home eNodeBs, relays and/or repeaters, beacon devices or any other network node configured for communication with wireless devices over a wireless interface, depending e.g. on the radio access technology and terminology used.

The functions of the radio access nodes 112, 114 may be distributed across one or more physical nodes. For example, each radio access node may be divided logically into more than one unit, comprising one or more of the following: a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit and a radio unit (RU), remote radio head (RRH) or transmission point (TP).

Each radio access node 112, 114 may serve one or more cells of the network 110. Within each cell, wireless devices communicate with the respective radio access node to provide services to users of the devices as will be familiar to those skilled in the art. Each radio access node 112, 114 further communicates with a core network 118 via a backhaul network 120, in order to co-ordinate and control the network 110, and provide access to other parts of the network 110 (e.g. devices in other cells, not illustrated). In FIG. 1, two wireless devices 116a, 116b (collectively, 116) are shown in communication with radio access node 112. The wireless devices 116 may also be known as user equipments (UEs), mobile devices, mobile terminal devices, wireless terminal devices, etc.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that wireless signals are transmitted between the radio access node 112 and the wireless devices 116 using radio resources which are scheduled according to one or more scheduling algorithms. A scheduler may be provided in the radio access node 112 or logically coupled to the radio access node for this purpose. As used herein, “radio resources” refers to any available resource which can be used to transmit wireless signals, such as frequency (e.g. one or more frequency channels or sub-channels), time (e.g. one or more frames, sub-frames, time slots, etc) or codes (e.g. as used for code-division multiplexing).

Thus, for downlink communications (i.e. from the radio access node 112 to the wireless devices 116), a pool of available radio resources is distributed for transmissions to the wireless devices 116 according to a scheduling algorithm. Various scheduling algorithms are known in the art, and the present disclosure is not limited in that respect. Suitable examples include round robin, fair queuing, proportionally fair scheduling and maximum throughput.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the output power of a radio access node varies as a function of the resources it uses for transmissions. For example, when the radio access node is scheduled to transmit using a relatively large amount of resources at any one time (e.g. a relatively large number of frequencies), the output power of that radio access node will also be relatively high; when the radio access node is scheduled to transmit using relatively few resources at any one time (e.g. a relatively low number of frequencies), the output power of that radio access node will be relatively low.

Embodiments of the present disclosure utilize this property to control the output of a transmission point (e.g. a radio access node) of a wireless communications network. In one embodiment, the output of the transmission point is controlled so that a regulatory RF exposure requirement is met.

The radio access node is thus provided with a pool of radio resources with which to schedule transmissions to the wireless devices 116. Embodiments of the disclosure apply limitations to this pool of radio resources so as to limit the output power of the radio access node or transmission point. For example, the radio access node may be permitted to utilize only a fraction of its available pool of radio resources for scheduling transmissions to the wireless devices 116.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a feedback control mechanism 200 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The control mechanism 200 may be implemented in a radio access node or transmission point, such as the radio access node 112 described above.

In the illustrated embodiment, the mechanism 200 comprises the following blocks: a controller 202; an adjuster 204; a limiter 206; a transmission power calculator 208; a first adding element 210; an averaging block 212; a second adding element 214 and a gain block 216.

The controller 202 receives a feedback signal which is representative of the average output power of the transmission point P_tot(s), as well as an output power reference value P_tot. This output power reference value may be set with reference to a maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} that has been pre-determined to meet a regulatory RF exposure requirement. For example, in one embodiment the output power reference value P_tot is the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}; in other embodiments, the output power reference value P_tot may be set below the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}. The controller compares the two values and generates a control signal in a manner which will be described in more detail below. In one embodiment, the controller 202 implements a proportional-derivative control scheme when generating the control signal.

In the illustrated embodiment, the control signal u(s) is indicative of a required change in the pool of radio resources. It will be noted here that s is the Laplace transform variable (which is closely related to the angular frequency in Fourier transforms). Thus the control signal commands adjustments to the adjuster, making it increase or decrease. The dynamics of the actuator mechanism is therefore
{dot over (γ)}(t)=u(t),
where γ(t) is the fractional limitation applied to the pool of available radio resources for scheduling, and where u(t) is the control signal discussed further below. t denotes continuous time. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the control mechanism may alternatively be implemented in discrete time, e.g., using the Euler approximation or the Tustin approximation. The scheduler may then limit the number of radio resources (e.g., frequency resources such as physical resource blocks, PRBs) it uses, or limit any other quantity that correlates well with the momentary output power.

This control signal is provided to the adjuster 204, which integrates the signal to generate a signal γ(t) indicative of the pool of radio resources that may be used for scheduling purposes. This signal is provided to the limiter 206, which applies upper and lower limits to the signal γ(t) to generate a limited signal γ(t).

The maximum value of γ(t) is 1.0 since it expresses a fraction of the total available scheduler resources. In some embodiments, the lower value of γ(t) may also be limited, to prevent the feedback control mechanism from reducing it to an unphysical value below 0.0, or below some lower value γ_low which prevents correct operation of the transmission point. The following limitation may therefore be applied to the signals:
γ_now≤γ(t)≤1.0

This limited signal is provided to the transmission power calculator 208, which converts the fractional limitation on the pool of total available radio resources into an output power, based on the maximum total power of the transmission point P_max,site. It will be seen from the described below with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5 that scheduling of data to the limited pool of radio resources also occurs in this block.

The output power is provided to the first adding element 210 together with a disturbing quantity representative of predicted power errors w(t). The output of the first adding element 210 is thus representative of the instantaneous output power of the transmission point P_tot(s). This quantity is then averaged in the averaging block 212 to account for the fact that the regulatory RF exposure requirement is expressed in terms of a time-averaged value. For example, the averaging block 212 may implement the averaging according to any suitable algorithm or model. In the illustrated embodiment, the averaging block 212 implements an autoregressive simplified model of the averaging 1/(sT+1), where T is the averaging time. The output of the averaging block 212 is provided to the second adding element 214, which adds it to a quantity e(s) representative of a measurement error. The output of the second adding element 214 is thus equal to the average total output power of the transmission point P_tot(s). This quantity is fed back to the controller 202 for use as described above.

The signal is further applied to the gain block 216, which is representative of the antenna gain G, outputting a signal with a specific EIRP.

As noted above, in some embodiments, the controller 202 may implement a proportional-derivative control scheme. In this case, the control signal generated by the controller 202 may be given by
u(s)=CT(1+T_Ds)(P_tot−P_tot(s)).
C denotes the proportional gain, and T_D the differentiation time. Following standard procedures of automatic control the poles of the closed loop system of FIG. 2 are given by the following second order equation
s²+(1/T P_max,siteCT_D)s+P_max,siteC=0.
These poles govern the closed loop dynamics of the feedback control mechanism, the actuator mechanism, and the averaged power. In order to determine the proportional gain and the differentiation time, a closed loop polynomial with desired poles in −α₁ and −α₂ is specified as
s²+(α₁+α₂)s+α₁α₂=0.

An identification of coefficients and solution of the resulting system of equations reveal that the proportional gain and differentiation time may be selected as

$C=\frac{{\alpha }_1{\alpha }_2}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}},T_D=\frac{{\alpha }_1+{\alpha }_2-\frac{1}{T}}{{\alpha }_1{\alpha }_2}.$

A reason for this choice is that a system with two negative real poles can be expected to be well damped, which is a result of a significant differentiation action. This differentiation action is particularly beneficial in providing fast backoff close to the determined threshold, thus preventing inadvertent excessive output power.

To implement the feedback control mechanism, P_tot, P_tot(t) and P*_tot(t) may be determined. The first two quantities can be obtained as described above, while the third quantity may be estimated. This can be done, for example, by autoregressive filtering of P_tot(t). One suitable autoregressive filter may be as follows:

$\langle \stackrel{.}{P_{\mathrm{tot}}}\rangle \left(s\right)=\frac{\alpha s}{s+\alpha }\langle P_{\mathrm{tot}}\rangle \left(s\right).$

In order to further emphasize the back-off control performance it may be beneficial to allow only differential control action that reduces the scheduler threshold γ(t). Thus in one embodiment, only negative contributions from the second term of the control signal u(s) may be allowed. This means that in the time domain, the following restriction to the derivative P*_tot(t) may be applied:
u(t)=CT(P_tot−P_tot(t))−CTT_D max(0,P*_tot(t)).

In some embodiments, a hard back-off may be applied selectively to the control signal to prevent inadvertent and momentary overshoot of the maximum averaged regulatory power. Thus, the fractional limitation applied to the pool of total radio resources may be set to a predetermined value (e.g. its minimum value γ_low) when the following condition is satisfied:
P_tot(t)>margin·P_{max,regulatory}
where margin is a value slightly below 1 and where P_{max,regulatory} is the maximum averaged regulatory power (which may be the same as or greater than the output power reference value P_tot).

In further embodiments, the control mechanism illustrated in FIG. 2 and described above may be selectively enabled and disabled based on the average output power of the radio access node or transmission point. For example, when the average output power is relatively low, far from the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}, the control mechanism may be disabled. Conversely, when the average output power is relatively high, close to the maximum averaged regulatory power, the control mechanism may be enabled to ensure that the average output power remains below the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}. For example:

The control mechanism may be turned on when P_tot(t)>δ₁P_max,site, and set γ(t)=1.0.

The control mechanism may be turned off when (P_tot(t)<δ₂P_max,site.

The values may fulfil the following condition: δ₂P_max≤P_tot≤δ₁P_max,site.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method according to embodiments of the disclosure. The method may be implemented in a network node, such as the radio access node 112 described above. Alternatively, the method may be implemented in a scheduler within or logically coupled to such a radio access node.

The method begins in step 300, in which the average output power of the radio access node over a period of time is determined. The average output power may be determined by measurement, e.g. of radio signals, just prior to transmission via the antenna or antenna array. In one embodiment this can be done by couplers that measure the radio signal amplitude at each signal path to an antenna element. These amplitudes can then be combined into a total output power of the radio, with the antenna gain removed. Based on such measurements, the averaged power can be constructed by integration as

$\langle P_{\mathrm{tot}}\rangle \left(t\right)=\frac{1}{T}\underset{t-T}{\overset{t}{\int }}{P}_{\mathrm{tot}}\left(\tau \right)d\tau$

Here P_tot(t) is the total measured power in the radio at current time t and T is the averaging time specified in the regulation. τ is a dummy time variable.

Alternatively, the output power of the radio access node may be predicted using information available in the scheduler or elsewhere in base band. For example, the estimated output power may be obtained based on the fraction of radio resources (e.g., PRBs) in use at one time, and then averaging this quantity over a period of time. Thus the momentary scheduled power as estimated by the fraction of PRBs used at each time instant may be summed over the time T, and then divided by the time T to obtain the average.

This approach is however subject to a number of errors. These include e.g. the actual power needed for re-transmissions, signal scaling and quantization errors, as well as errors caused by radio signal processing close to the antenna, including e.g. clipping to achieve peak to average power reductions.

In step 302, the determined average output power is compared to an output power reference signal value P_tot. This output power reference value may be set with reference to a maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} that has been pre-determined to meet a regulatory RF exposure requirement. For example, in one embodiment the output power reference value P_tot is the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}; in other embodiments, the output power reference value P_tot may be set below the maximum averaged regulatory power.

In step 304, a control signal is generated based on the comparison in step 302. The control signal may be generated using a similar mechanism to that described above with respect to FIG. 2. For example, in one embodiment, the control signal is indicative of a change, or a rate of change, to a pool of radio resources available to the scheduler for downlink transmissions to one or more wireless devices.

The control signal may be generated according to a proportional derivative control scheme, which has at least one component which is proportional to the difference between the output power reference value and the average output power, and at least one component which is proportional to the time derivative of the difference between the output power reference value and the average output power.

The radio access node has a total pool of radio resources with which to schedule transmissions to one or more wireless devices (e.g. wireless devices 116 served by the radio access node). In step 306, this pool of radio resources is adjusted based on the control signal. For example, the control signal may be indicative of (or used to calculate) a fraction of the pool of radio resources or a rate of change of the fraction of the pool of radio resources. By applying this fraction to the pool of resources, an adjusted pool of resources is generated which may be reduced in size compared to the total pool of radio resources. Depending on the state of the feedback control scheme, the adjustment to the pool of resources may be positive or negative.

Thus the scheduler is provided with an adjusted pool of resources which is less than the total pool of radio resources which would otherwise be available to it. The adjusted pool of resources may be formulated based on the total pool of radio resources, but with a fraction of the resources removed. For example, the number of frequency resources (e.g. PRBs, sub-channels, etc.) may be reduced by removing a number of resources at higher frequencies, or lower frequencies, or removing frequency resources which are distributed through the bandwidth of the pool of resources (e.g. every nth resource may be removed, where n is an integer).

In step 308, this adjusted pool of radio resources is used to schedule transmissions to one or more wireless devices. Thus data which is available to the radio access node for transmission to the one or more wireless devices is assigned or allocated to resources in the adjusted pool of radio resources. One or more scheduling algorithms may be utilized for this purpose. Various scheduling algorithms are known in the art, and the present disclosure is not limited in that respect. Suitable examples include round robin, fair queuing, proportionally fair scheduling and maximum throughput.

The radio access node may then proceed to transmit wireless signals to the one or more wireless devices according to the scheduled resources. In some embodiments the method shown in FIG. 3 is iterative. Thus, the average output power of the radio access node is again determined (i.e. as described with respect to step 300), and compared to an output power reference value. Thus the method may continue to adjust the pool of radio resources and so adjust the output power of the radio access node.

FIG. 4 shows a transmitter arrangement 400 according to embodiments of the disclosure.

In the illustrated embodiment, the transmitter arrangement 400 comprises a digital unit (DU) 402 and a radio unit 404, coupled to each other via a suitable interface. In the illustrated embodiment, this interface is termed a C2 interface. The DU 402 comprises a controller 406, a scheduler 408 and on/off logic 410.

It will be seen that the transmitter arrangement 400 implements a control mechanism as illustrated in and described above with respect to FIG. 2. Thus the controller 406 receives a feedback signal which is representative of the average output power of the transmission point P_tot(s), as well as an output power reference value P_tot. This output power reference value may be set with reference to a maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} that has been pre-determined to meet a regulatory RF exposure requirement. For example, in one embodiment the output power reference value P_tot is the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}; in other embodiments, the output power reference value P_tot may be set below the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}. The controller compares the two values and generates a control signal u(s). In one embodiment, the controller 406 implements a proportional-derivative control scheme when generating the control signal. In the illustrated embodiment, the control signal u(s) is indicative of a required change in the pool of radio resources.

The control signal u(s) is provided to the scheduler 408, and is used to adjust a pool of radio resources available to the scheduler 408 for the purposes of scheduling transmissions to one or more wireless devices. Alternatively, the control signal may be used to adjust the rate of change of the pool of radio resources available to the scheduler 408.

In the illustrated embodiment, the control signal is integrated in an integrator 412, which converts the control signal, being indicative of a change (or a rate of change) in the fraction of pool of resources, to a fraction γ(t) of the pool of resources. The fraction γ(t) is then provided to a limiter 414. The limiter 414 may be implemented as the limiter 206 described above with respect to FIG. 2. In an alternative embodiment, the limiter 206 described above with respect to the FIG. 2 may be implemented as the limiter 414.

The limiter 414 applies one or more limitations to the fraction γ(t). For example, the limiter 414 may apply upper and lower limitations to the fraction γ(t), to ensure that the fraction γ(t) falls within upper and lower values. Thus, if the output of the integrator 412 is greater than the upper value, the limiter 414 limits the fraction to the upper value; if the output of the integrator 412 is less than the lower value, the limiter 414 limits the fraction to the lower value.

The output of the limiter 414 thus represents a limited pool of radio resources available to the scheduler 408, Thus only a fraction of the total pool of radio resources becomes available to a scheduling algorithm 416, for the allocation of data for transmission to one or more wireless devices. As noted above, various scheduling algorithms may be utilized, including round robin, fair queuing, proportionally fair scheduling and maximum throughput.

The output of the scheduling algorithm 416 is thus a set of signals to be provided to the radio unit 404, comprising data to be transmitted to one or more wireless devices utilizing resources selected from the adjusted pool of radio resources. In the illustrated model, these signals are adjusted by the addition of a quantity representative of predicted power errors w(t) in a first adding element 418.

The output of the first adding element 418 is thus representative of the instantaneous output power of the transmission point P_tot(s). This quantity is provided to the radio unit 404, via the C2 interface, in terms of the data that is scheduled for transmission, where it is averaged in an averaging block 420 to account for the fact that the regulatory RF exposure limit is expressed as a time-averaged value which is related to a time-averaged transmission output power. For example, the averaging block 420 may implement the averaging according to any suitable algorithm or model. In the illustrated embodiment, the averaging block 420 implements an autoregressive simplified model of the averaging 1/(sT+1), where T is the averaging time. The output of the averaging block 420 is provided to a second adding element 422, which adds it to a quantity e(s) which is representative of an averaged total power measurement error. The output of the second adding element 422 is thus equal to the average total output power of the transmission point P_tot(s). This quantity is fed back to the controller 406 for use as described above.

The signal is further applied to an antenna or an antenna array 424, which applies an antenna gain G, outputting a wireless signal with a specific EIRP.

The average total output power of the transmission point P_tot(s) is also provided to on/off logic 410, which serves to enable and disable the feedback control mechanism. For this purpose, the on/off logic 410 may have control interfaces with one or more of the controller 406, the integrator 412, the limiter 414 and the scheduling algorithm 416. For example, when the average output power is relatively low, far from the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}, the control mechanism may be disabled by sending appropriate disabling control signals to one or more of the modules identified above. Conversely, when the average output power is relatively high, close to the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory}, the control mechanism may be enabled by sending appropriate enabling control signals to one or more of the modules identified above, to ensure that the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} is not exceeded. For example:

The control mechanism may be turned on when P_tot(t)>δ₁P_max,site, and may set γ(t)=1.0.

The control mechanism may be turned off when P_tot(t)<δ₂P_max,site.

The values may fulfil the following condition: δ₂P_max,site≤P_tot≤δ₁P_max,site.

FIG. 5a shows a transmitter arrangement 500a according to further embodiments of the disclosure.

The transmitter arrangement 500a is similar to the arrangement 400 described above with respect to FIG. 4, and therefore will not be described fully herein. However, rather than measuring the transmitter output power, the arrangement 500a predicts the transmitter output power based on an output of the scheduling algorithm 516. Thus the transmitter arrangement 500a additionally comprises an average power predictor 511 coupled to an output of the scheduling algorithm 516.

For example, the estimated output power may be obtained based on the fraction of radio resources (e.g., PRBs) in use at one time, and then averaging this quantity over a period of time. Thus the momentary scheduled power as estimated by the fraction of PRBs used at each time instant may be summed over the time T, and then divided by the time T to obtain the average.

This predicted value is then provided to the on/off logic 510 for the purposes of enabling and disabling the control mechanism, and to the controller 506 for comparison to the output power reference value.

As described above, embodiments of the disclose allow for controlling the output of a transmission point by adjusting a pool of radio resources based on a comparison of an output power reference value and an average output power of the transmission point P_tot(s). The output power reference value may be set based on a maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} that has been pre-determined to meet a regulatory RF exposure requirement. The output of the transmission point may thus be controlled so that a regulatory RF exposure requirement is met.

As noted in the background section, beamforming can be used to increase the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of a transmission point. Therefore, as an alternative, the maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} may be expressed as an EIRP value to account for any beamforming techniques applied at the transmission point when controlling the output.

In addition, transmission points are often co-sited, so that, for example, a single base station site may host multiple transmission points. Even if transmission points are not co-sited, neighbouring transmission points may have overlapping coverage areas. Methods for controlling the output of a transmission point that account for transmissions from co-sited and neighbouring transmission points may therefore be needed.

Accordingly, FIG. 5b shows a transmitter arrangement 500b according to further embodiments of the disclosure. The transmitter arrangement 500b may be applied in a first transmission point in a wireless communications network. The first transmission point may be in a vicinity of one or more neighbouring transmission points.

The transmitter arrangement 500b is similar to the arrangement 500a described above with respect to FIG. 5a, and therefore will not be described fully herein. However, the transmitter arrangement 500b further comprises a beamforming algorithm determination block 530, which is configured to determine a beamforming algorithm of the first transmission point. The beamforming algorithm may be a beamforming algorithm in use by the first transmission point or a beamforming algorithm that is intended to be used by the first transmission point.

The transmitter arrangement 500b further comprises a threshold determination block 528, which is configured to determine an output power threshold P_th of the first transmission point based on the beamforming algorithm of the first transmission point and/or an output power of one or more neighbouring transmission points. The output power threshold P_th may be used to determine the output power reference value P_tot for the first transmission point. The operation of the threshold determination block 528 is described in more detail below.

As illustrated, the transmitter arrangement 500b further comprises a power reference value computation block 526. The power reference value computation block 526 is configured to determine the output power reference value P_tot for the first transmission point based on the power threshold P_th determined at the threshold determination block 528. For example, in one embodiment the power reference value P_tot is the power threshold P_th; in other embodiments the power reference value P_tot may be set below the power threshold P_th.

The transmitter arrangement 500b is further provided with an on/off threshold computation block 532, which determines on/off threshold values δ₁ and δ₂ at which the control mechanism is enabled and disabled based on the output power threshold P_th. In one embodiment, the on/off threshold values δ₁ and δ₂ are determined based on a ratio of the output power threshold P_th to a maximum power of the first transmission point and the neighbouring transmission points P_max,site. For example, the on threshold value δ₁ may be equal to P_th/P_max,site or a fraction of P_th/P_max,site. The on threshold value may be determined based on a simulation in order to maximise the power level at which the control mechanism is activated, whilst also ensuring that the maximum averaged regulatory power is not exceeded. The off threshold value δ₂ may be less than or equal to the on threshold value δ₁.

The transmitter arrangement 500b therefore allows for determining an output power reference value P_tot and on/off threshold values δ₁ and δ₂ based on a beamforming algorithm of the first transmission point and an output power of one or more neighbouring transmission points in the vicinity of the first transmission point.

The operation of the threshold determination block 528 will now be described in more detail. Although the following embodiments will be described in reference to determining an output power threshold P_th of a first transmission point based on the beamforming algorithm of the first transmission point and an output power of one or more neighbouring transmission points in the vicinity of the first transmission point, it will be apparent to the skilled person that the output power threshold may be determined based on one or both of these factors without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

The output power threshold P_th is determined by considering all the contributions to the transmitted power to form a power balance equation.

The power balance equation for a first transmission point transmitting a control channel with power P_PDCCH(t) and gain G_PDCCH (t) and a data channel with power P_PDSCH(t) and gain G_PDSCH(t) in carriers cat time t may be expressed as

$T\sum _{i=1}^I{P}_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}+\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}{T}_S\sum _{c=1}^C{P}_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)+\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}{T}_S\sum _{c=1}^C{P}_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)={\mathrm{TP}}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}\alpha \left(T\right),$
in which T_S is a sampling period over which power measurements are made, T is a regulatory averaging time, C is a total number of carriers over which signals are transmitted and N is the number of samples used for power averaging.

The first term in the power balance equation accounts for the contribution from signals transmitted by I neighbouring transmission points with power P_ext,i and gain G_ext,i. The power P_ext,i of each neighbouring transmission point may be a maximum power of each neighbouring transmission point. Alternatively, the power of each neighbouring transmission point may be an average power of each neighbouring transmission point.

The left-hand side of the power balance equation thus accounts for all contributions to the power summed up over the applied averaging time. The right-hand side expresses the needed power back-off, in which P_max,site is the total maximum power of the first transmission point and the neighbouring transmission points. The maximum beam gain that the transmission points can generate, G_max,site, may be given by the number of antenna elements at the first transmission point and the i neighbouring transmission points. α(T) is therefore the fraction of the maximum total EIRP of the transmission points.

The power balance equation describes an embodiment in which all of the antennas of the contributing transmitters are co-located in the same physical point and pointing in the same direction, and that all contributing transmitters are active in a frequency range covered by one single RF exposure requirement, i.e. the same limit value and averaging time. However, the present disclosure is not limited as such. Those skilled in the art will recognise that more detailed analysis may be applied to determine the sought power thresholds if, for example, the transmitters are not closely co-located. In another embodiment, the first term in the balance equation may be multiplied with a factor that accounts for the combined effect of RF exposure contributions in order to reduce the conservativeness of the original embodiment. In further embodiments, RF exposure contributions in different frequency ranges with different RF exposure requirements may be combined. For example, the shortest averaging time may be used to combine contributions from different frequency bands with different averaging times.

The power density balance equation may be rewritten as

$\alpha \left(T\right)=\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)\left(G_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)-P_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}},$
where P_tot,c(t) is the total power of signals transmitted over a carrier c from the first transmission point at time t.

The next step is to apply bounding to ensure that
α(T)≤α_max,
where α_max is a pre-determined maximum allowed fraction of the maximum total output power of the transmission points at the site to meet a regulatory RF exposure requirement.

In an embodiment, α_max may be computed as a ratio of a maximum averaged regulatory power P_{max,regulatory} multiplied by a beam gain (i.e. expressed in terms of EIRP) to the total maximum EIRP of the first and neighbouring transmission points. In other embodiments, α_max may be less than said ratio.

This bounding is applied to determine a power threshold, P_th from the power balance equation. Six exemplary embodiments applied to different beamforming algorithms are described below. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various beamforming algorithms are known in the art, and the disclosure is not limited in that respect. In addition, the six embodiments described below are based on the assumption that one single RF exposure requirement applies (same limit and averaging time) and that all transmitters are represented as being located in the same physical point, with antennas pointing in the same direction. However, the present disclosure is not limited as such. Those skilled in the art will recognise that more detailed analysis may applied if, for example, the transmitters are not located in the same physical location.

In a first embodiment, beamforming is not applied to the control channel at the first transmission point. Therefore, G_PDCCH,c(t)=G_PDCCH, in which G_PDCCH is the gain for the control channel when no beamforming is applied. Reciprocity assisted beamforming is used for the data channel, which means that it cannot be guaranteed that G_PDSCH,c(t)≥G_PDSCH, where G_PDSCH is the gain for the data channel when no beamforming is applied. However, a constraint on G_PDSCH,c(t) is that G_PDSCH,c≤G_max,site.

The fraction of the total power density may then be given by

$\alpha \left(T\right)=\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)\left(G_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)-P_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}$

An upper bound on α may thus be expressed as

$\alpha \left(T\right)\le \sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDSCH},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}.$

As G_PDSCH,c(t)≤G_max,site an upper bound on a may be written as

$\alpha \left(T\right)\le \sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}\left(t\right)G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}.$

The fraction of the total maximum power of the first and neighbouring transmission points that is used for the control channel at the first transmission point may be expressed as

$\beta =\sum _{c=1}^C\frac{P_{\mathrm{PDCCH},c}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}.$
β may be a predetermined value. The value of β may depend on a type of radio access technology used by the first transmission point. For example, β may be set to 0.25 for a transmission point operating according to LTE, whereas β may be set to a smaller value for a transmission point operating according to a 5G radio access technology.

The upper bound on a is thus given by

$\alpha \left(T\right)\le \sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{\beta P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\le \sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}.$
An upper boundary may be applied to ensure that the fraction of the total power, α, does not exceed a maximum allowed fraction of the maximum power of the transmission points, α_max. As noted above, α_max is a pre-determined value based on a regulatory RF exposure requirement.

Applying bounding gives:

$\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}+\frac{T_S}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}\frac{P_{\mathrm{tot},c}\left(t\right)}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\le {\alpha }_{\max },$
such that

$\frac{1}{T}\sum _{c=1}^C\sum _{t=T_S}^{{\mathrm{NT}}_S}{P}_{\mathrm{tot},c}{T}_S\le \left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}},\frac{1}{T}\underset{0}{\overset{T}{\int }}{P}_{\mathrm{tot}}\left(t\right)\mathrm{dt}\le \left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

Therefore, the output power threshold is given by

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

In a second embodiment, a grid-of-beams beamforming algorithm is used on the control channel, and the maximum applied control channel beamforming gain G_max,PDCCH is known. Reciprocity assisted beamforming is used for the data channel, which means that it cannot be guaranteed that G_PDSCH,c(t)≥G_PDSCH. However, G_PDSCH,c≤G_max,site.Therefore, the output power threshold is given by

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\max ,\mathrm{PDCCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

In a third embodiment, reciprocity assisted beamforming is used on the control channel so it cannot be guaranteed that G_PDCCH, c(t)≥G_PDCCH. However, G_PDCCH,c≤G_max,site. Similarly, reciprocity assisted beamforming is used on the data channel, so it cannot be guaranteed that G_PDSCH,c(t)≥G_PDSCH. However, G_PDSCH,c(t)≤G_max,site. Therefore, the output power threshold is given by

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta -\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

In a fourth embodiment, no beamforming is used on the control channel so that G_PDCCH,c(t)=G_PDCCH. A grid-of-beams beamforming algorithm is used on the data channel so that G_PDSCH,c(t) is known. This gives

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\mathrm{PDCCH}}-G_{\min ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)\frac{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{P}_{\max ,\mathrm{site},},$
where G_min,PDSCH and G_max,PDSCH are respectively the minimum and maximum data channel beamforming gain for a grid-of-beams beamforming algorithm.

In a fifth embodiment, reciprocity assisted beamforming is used on the control channel, so it cannot be guaranteed that G_PDCCH,c(t)≥G_PDCCH. However, a constraint on G_PDCCH,c(t) is that G_PDCCH,c≤G_max,site. Data channel beamforming is performed using a grid of beams, so G_PDSCH,c(t) is known. This gives

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \left(1-\frac{G_{\min ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)\frac{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{P}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

In a sixth embodiment, control channel beamforming is performed with a grid of beams, so G_PDCCH,c(t) is known. Similarly, data channel beamforming is performed with a grid of beams, so G_PDSCH,c(t) is known. Therefore, the output power threshold is given by:

$P_{th}=\left({\alpha }_{\max }-\beta \frac{G_{\max ,\mathrm{PDCCH}}-G_{\min ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}-\sum _{i=1}^I\frac{P_{\mathrm{ext},i}{G}_{\mathrm{ext},i}}{P_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}{G}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}\right)\frac{G_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}}{G_{\max ,\mathrm{PDSCH}}}{P}_{\max ,\mathrm{site}}.$

The aforementioned embodiments therefore provide a transmitter arrangement in which the output power threshold is determined based on a beamforming algorithm of the first transmission point and an output power of one or more neighbouring transmission points that are in the vicinity of the first transmission point. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that neighbouring transmission points that are in the vicinity of the first transmission point may be taken to include, for example, transmission points with coverage areas that overlap with a coverage area of the first transmission point. In an alternative example, the neighbouring transmission points may be co-sited with the first transmission point. A single base station may, for example, comprise the first transmission point and the neighbouring transmission points.

In particular embodiments, at least one of the neighbouring transmission points may operate according to a different radio access technology to the first transmission point. For example, the first transmission point may operate according to 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), whereas one or more of the neighbouring transmission points may operate according to a 5G radio access technology.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a network node 600 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The network node 600 may be configured to implement the method described above with respect to FIG. 3, for example. The network node 600 may comprise or be implemented in a radio access node (such as the radio access node 112) of a wireless communications network. Alternatively, the network node 600 may comprise or be implemented in a scheduler communicatively coupled to such a radio access network.

The network node 600 comprises processing circuitry (such as one or more processors) 602 and a non-transitory machine-readable medium 604 (such as memory). The memory may store instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry 602, cause the network node to: determine an average output power of a transmission point over a period of time; compare the average output power to an output power reference value; and allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

The network node 600 may further comprise one or more interfaces 606, for transmitting signals to and/or receiving signals from other network nodes of the wireless communications network. The interfaces 606 may comprise circuitry for the transmission and/or reception of electrical, optical or wireless signals.

The interface(s) 606, processing circuitry 602 and machine-readable medium 602 may be connected together in any suitable manner. In the illustrated embodiment, the components are coupled together directly, in series. In alternative embodiments, the components may be coupled to each other via a system bus or other communication line.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network node 700 according to further embodiments of the disclosure.

The network node 700 may be configured to implement the method described above with respect to FIG. 3, for example. The network node 700 may comprise or be implemented in a radio access node (such as the radio access node 112) of a wireless communications network. Alternatively, the network node 700 may comprise or be implemented in a scheduler communicatively coupled to such a radio access network. The network node 700 comprises a determining module 702, a comparing module 704 and an allocating module 706. In one embodiment, the determining module 702 may be configured to determine an average output power of a transmission point over a period of time. The comparing module 704 may be configured to compare the average output power to an output power reference value. The allocating module 706 may be configured to allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources. The pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

In the illustrated embodiment, the network node additionally comprises a generation module 708 and an adjusting module 710. The generation module 708 may be configured to generate a control signal based on the output of the comparing module 704. The adjusting module 710 may be configured to adjust the pool of radio resources based on the control signal.

The network node 700 may further comprise one or more interface modules, for transmitting signals to and/or receiving signals from other network nodes of the wireless communications network. The interface modules may comprise circuitry for the transmission and/or reception of electrical, optical or wireless signals.

In one embodiment, the modules of the network node 700 are implemented purely in software. In another embodiment, the modules of the network node 700 are implemented purely in hardware. In a further embodiment, the modules of the network 700 are implemented in a combination of hardware and software.

Thus the disclosure provides methods, apparatus and machine-readable mediums for controlling the transmit output power of a transmission point. In particular, the disclosure provides a mechanism for smoothly varying the transmit output power so that the time-averaged value is below a threshold that has been pre-determined to comply with a regulatory RF exposure requirement.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the concepts disclosed herein, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended following statements and claims. The word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a statement or claim, “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality, and a single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several units recited in the statements. Any reference signs in the statements and claims shall not be construed so as to limit their scope.

The following numbered paragraphs set out embodiments of the disclosure:

1. A method for controlling the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time;

comparing the average output power to an output power reference value; and

allocating data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources,

wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

2. The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the pool of radio resources is a fraction of a total pool of available radio resources, and wherein the fraction varies as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

3. The method according to embodiment 1 or 2, wherein the pool of radio resources comprises resources at a plurality of different transmission frequencies.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding embodiments, further comprising:

generating a control signal based on the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value, and adjusting the pool of radio resources based on the control signal.

5. The method according to embodiment 4, wherein the controller that generates the control signal implements a proportional-derivative control scheme.

6. The method according to embodiment 5, wherein the control signal comprises a first term which is proportional to a difference between the average output power and the output power reference value.

7. The method according to embodiment 5 or 6, wherein the control signal comprises a second term which is proportional to a time-derivative of the average output power.

8. The method according to embodiment 7, wherein the second term is restricted to values which are equal to or less than zero.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding embodiments, wherein the pool of resources is set to a minimum value responsive to a determination that the average output power is within a proportional threshold of the output power maximum value.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding embodiments, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises measuring amplitudes of one or more radio signals provided to one of more antenna elements of the transmission point.

11. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises predicting an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time.

12. The method according to any one of the preceding embodiments, further comprising disabling adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is below a first threshold value.

13. The method according to any one of the preceding embodiments, further comprising enabling adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is above a second threshold value.

14. The method according to embodiment 13 when dependent on embodiment 12, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value.

15. A network node configured to perform the method according to any one of the preceding embodiments.

16. A network node for the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network, the network node comprising processing circuitry and a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the network node to:

determine an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time;

compare the average output power to an output power reference value; and

allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources,

wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

17. The network node according to embodiment 16, wherein the pool of radio resources is a fraction of a total pool of available radio resources, and wherein the fraction varies as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

18. The network node according to embodiment 16 or 17, wherein the pool of radio resources comprises resources at a plurality of different transmission frequencies.

19. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 18, wherein the network node is further caused to:

generating a control signal based on the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value, and adjusting the pool of radio resources based on the control signal.

20. The network node according to embodiment 19, wherein the controller that generates the control signal implements a proportional-derivative control scheme.

21. The network node according to embodiment 20, wherein the control signal comprises a first term which is proportional to a difference between the average output power and the output power reference value.

22. The network node according to embodiment 20 or 21, wherein the control signal comprises a second term which is proportional to a time-derivative of the average output power.

23. The network node according to embodiment 22, wherein the second term is restricted to values which are equal to or less than zero.

24. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 23, wherein the pool of resources is set to a minimum value responsive to a determination that the average output power is within a proportional threshold of the output power maximum value.

25. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 24, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises measuring amplitudes of one or more radio signals provided to one of more antenna elements of the transmission point.

26. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 24, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises predicting an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time.

27. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 26, wherein the network node is further caused to disable adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is below a first threshold value.

28. The network node according to any one of embodiments 16 to 27, wherein the network node is further caused to enable adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is above a second threshold value.

29. The network node according to embodiment 28 when dependent on embodiment 27, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value.

30. A network node for the output of a transmission point for a wireless communications network, the network node comprising:

a determining module configured to determine an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time;

a comparing module configured to compare the average output power to an output power reference value; and

an allocation module configured to allocate data, to be transmitted by the transmission point to one or more wireless devices, to a pool of radio resources,

wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

31. The network node according to embodiment 30, wherein the pool of radio resources is a fraction of a total pool of available radio resources, and wherein the fraction varies as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

32. The network node according to embodiment 30 or 31, wherein the pool of radio resources comprises resources at a plurality of different transmission frequencies.

33. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 32, further comprising:

a generating module configured to generate a control signal based on the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value;

and an adjusting module configured to adjust the pool of radio resources based on the control signal.

34. The network node according to embodiment 33, wherein the generating module implements a proportional-derivative control scheme.

35. The network node according to embodiment 34, wherein the control signal comprises a first term which is proportional to a difference between the average output power and the output power reference value.

36. The network node according to embodiment 34 or 35, wherein the control signal comprises a second term which is proportional to a time-derivative of the average output power.

37. The network node according to embodiment 36, wherein the second term is restricted to values which are equal to or less than zero.

38. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 37, wherein the pool of resources is set to a minimum value responsive to a determination that the average output power is within a proportional threshold of the output power maximum value.

39. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 38, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises measuring amplitudes of one or more radio signals provided to one of more antenna elements of the transmission point.

40. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 38, wherein determining an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time comprises predicting an average output power of the transmission point over a period of time.

41. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 40, further comprising a disabling module configured to disable adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is below a first threshold value.

42. The network node according to any one of embodiments 30 to 41, further comprising an enabling module configured to enable adjustments to the pool of resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is above a second threshold value.

43. The network node according to embodiment 42 when dependent on embodiment 41, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value.

44. A computer program for performing the method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 15.

45. A computer program product, comprising a computer program according to embodiment 44.

46. A computer program product according to embodiment 45, embodied on a carrier.

APPENDIX

The following subsection explains the basics of the terminology used. It is stressed that this terminology is part of the prior art in the field of automatic control. A number of representations of a dynamic process may be introduced. A dynamic process is one where the output depends not only on the present input signal but also on previous inputs and outputs. In other words, the dynamic process has memory. The most basic dynamic process is the linear one that can be described by a differential equation as
y⁽ⁿ⁾(t)+a₁y⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(t)+ . . . +a_ny(t)=b₀u^(m)(t)+ . . . b_mu(t).

Here y(t) is the output signal, u(t) is the input signal, t is the time, while a, i=1 . . . n and b_j j=0, . . . , m are constant parameters. (i) denotes differentiation with respect to time i times. The above differential equation has order n. It has one input signal and one output signal. For simplicity all concepts are explained in this context, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that the concepts can be generalized to more than one input signal and/or more than one output signal.

By taking Laplace transforms and setting initial values to zero, the differential equation is transformed to be represented by a transfer function H^(s), where s denotes the Laplace transform variable, which is closely related to the angular frequency used in Fourier transforms. The result is

$H\left(s\right)=\frac{B\left(s\right)}{A\left(s\right)}=\frac{b_o{s}^m+b_1{s}^{m-1}+\dots +b_m}{s^n+a_1{s}^{n-1}+\dots +a_n}.$

The relationship between the output signal Laplace transform Y(s) and the input signal Laplace transform U(s) is
Y(s)=H(s)U(s)

The poles p_i (where i=1, . . . ,n) of the process are given by the equation A(s)=0. For simplicity only strictly stable (open loop) processes with all poles in the left complex half plane are considered here. In general, poles can be real or complex conjugate pairs.

The properties of the dynamic process can also be studied in the frequency domain in terms of complex-valued frequency functions Y(jω), H(jω) and U(jω). ω denotes the angular frequency that fulfils
ω=2πf,
where f is the frequency in Hz. References to frequency hereinafter are to be understood as references to angular frequency.

The following definition is best explained with respect to FIG. 8, where F_y(s) is the feedback gain. The closed loop system is then computed as follows
Y(s)=w(s)+H(s)F_y(s)(Y_ref(s)−Y(s)),
which gives

$Y\left(s\right)=\frac{F_y\left(s\right)H\left(s\right)}{1+F_y\left(s\right)H\left(s\right)}{Y}_{\mathrm{ref}}\left(s\right)+\frac{1}{1+F_y\left(s\right)H\left(s\right)}W\left(s\right).$

This gives the effect of the reference signal and the disturbance on the output. The remaining definitions now follow:

The closed loop bandwidth ω_CL of the control system is given by the equation

${\frac{F_y\left(j{\omega }_{\mathrm{CL}}\right)H\left(j{\omega }_{\mathrm{CL}}\right)}{1+F_y\left(j{\omega }_{\mathrm{CL}}\right)H\left(j{\omega }_{\mathrm{CL}}\right)}}^2=\frac{1}{2}{\frac{F_y\left(0\right)H\left(0\right)}{1+F_y\left(0\right)H\left(0\right)}}^2.$

The closed loop static error of the control system is given by the equation

$y_{\mathrm{ref}}-y=\frac{1}{1+F_y\left(0\right)H\left(0\right)}\left(y_{\mathrm{ref}}-w\right),$

The static disturbance rejection of the control system is given by the static sensitivity function

$s\left(0\right)=\frac{1}{1+F_y\left(0\right)H\left(0\right)}.$

The dynamic disturbance rejection of the control system is determined by the sensitivity function

$S\left(j\omega \right)=\frac{1}{1+F_y\left(j\omega \right)H\left(j\omega \right)}$

The complimentary sensitivity function of the control system, T(jω)=1−S(jω) determines the robustness of the control system with respect to un-modelled dynamics.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an output of a first transmission point for a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

determining an average output power of the first transmission point over a period of time;

comparing the average output power to an output power reference value;

generating a control signal based on the comparing the average output power to the output power reference value;

adjusting a pool of radio resources based on the control signal; and

allocating datato the pool of radio resources for transmission via the first transmission point to one or more wireless devices,

wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of a comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pool of radio resources is a fraction of a total pool of available radio resources and wherein the fraction varies as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pool of radio resources comprises resources at a plurality of different transmission frequencies.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a controller that generates the control signal implements a proportional-derivative control scheme to generate the control signal.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the controller generates the control signal that is proportional to a difference between the average output power and the output power reference value.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the controller generates the control signal that is proportional to a time-derivative related to the average output power.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the control signal is based on a control system having poles which are equal to or less than zero.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted to a minimum value responsive to a determination that the average output power exceeds a threshold value.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time comprises measuring amplitudes of one or more radio signals provided to one of more antenna elements of the first transmission point.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time comprises predicting the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising one or more of the following:

disabling adjustments to the pool of radio resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is below a first threshold value; and

enabling adjustments to the pool of radio resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is above a second threshold value.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining the output power reference value based on an output power of a second transmission point in a vicinity of the first transmission point.

14. A network node for an output of a first transmission point for a wireless communications network, the network node comprising:

processing circuitry; and

a storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the network node to:

determine an average output power of the first transmission point over a period of time;

compare the average output power to an output power reference value;

generate a control signal based on a comparison of the average output power to the output power reference value;

adjust a pool of radio resources based on the control signal; and

allocate data to the pool of radio resources for transmission via the first transmission point to one or more wireless devices,

wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

15. The network node according to claim 14, wherein the pool of radio resources is a fraction of a total pool of available radio resources and wherein the fraction varies as a function of the comparison between the average output power and the output power reference value.

16. The network node according to claim 14, wherein the pool of radio resources comprises resources at a plurality of different transmission frequencies.

17. The network node according to claim 14, wherein a controller that generates the control signal implements a proportional-derivative control scheme to generate the control signal.

18. The network node according to claim 17, wherein the controller generates the control signal that is proportional to a difference between the average output power and the output power reference value.

19. The network node according to claim 17, wherein the controller generates the control signal that is proportional to a time-derivative related to the average output power.

20. The network node according to claim 19, wherein the control signal is based on a control system having poles which are equal to or less than zero.

21. The network node according to claim 14, wherein the pool of radio resources is adjusted to a minimum value responsive to a determination that the average output power exceeds a threshold value.

22. The network node according to claim 14, wherein to determine the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time comprises measuring amplitudes of one or more radio signals provided to one of more antenna elements of the first transmission point.

23. The network node according to claim 14, wherein to determine the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time comprises predicting the average output power of the first transmission point over the period of time.

24. The network node according to claim 14, wherein the network node is further caused to do one or more of the following:

disable adjustments to the pool of radio resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is below a first threshold value; and

enable adjustments to the pool of radio resources responsive to a determination that the average output power is above a second threshold value.